For many individuals, writing is a gift that allows one to transform intangible feelings and emotions into words on a tangible piece of paper. It allows one to transform something hidden into something that can be seen. Because of this, the talent of a writer may seem like a blessing. However, some individuals view it as a curse. In the Charlotte Smith’s “Sonnet I,” the speaker battles negative feelings in regards to her poetic abilities. These feelings serve to establish a sad and angry tone. The speaker’s complex viewpoint serves to create tension that remains unresolved in the end. Throughout Smith’s elegiac sonnet, the speaker employs a wide variety of rhymes in order to demonstrate her growing anger and sadness towards her poetic abilities. …show more content…
Throughout much of the poem, the speaker repeats harsh “t” and “d” sounds, “The partial Muse, has from my earliest hours, / Smil 'd on the rugged path I 'm doom 'd to tread” (1-2). This repetition of the harsh “t” and “d” sounds conveys the speaker’s anger towards the talents that have been brought upon her by the Muse. These sounds are very articulate and thus are full of spite. In addition, the speaker employs much softer “s” sounds, “And still with sportive hand has snatch 'd wild flowers, / To weave fantastic garlands for my head” (3-4). In contrast to the passion and spite that characterize the “t” and “d” sounds, the speaker’s “s” sounds are mellow. These softer sounds reflect the speaker’s sadness in regards to the talents that have been brought upon her by the Muse. This unique mixture of consonance continues throughout the entirety of the poem. Even in the ending couplet, the speaker’s consonance continues to build tension. In general, the ending couplet of a sonnet serves to resolve the tension established by the preceding twelve lines. In Smith’s “Sonnet I,” however, the speaker’s unwavering use of harsh “t” and “d” and soft “s” sounds signifies that at the end of the sonnet, the tension remains unresolved, “Ah! then, how dear the Muse 's favours cost, / If those paint sorrow best who feel it most!” (13-14). Similar to the three quatrains, the harsh repetition of “t” and “d” and the soft repetition of “s” sounds continues through the closing lines of the sonnet. Clearly, the speaker is both angered and saddened by the fact that she has the ability to “paint sorrow” simply because she “feels it most.” Throughout the entirety of the poem, the speaker mixes harsh sounds with soft sounds in order to capture the two primary feelings that she possesses: anger and
Lauren Alleyne uses the rigid form of the sonnet to navigate through the healing process after being sexually assaulted. Ten years after that night, she writes the sonnet sequence Eighteen, which deviates from the typical sonnet form in the aspects of the speaker, subject, and format. Playing off of the standard sonnet form, Alleyne is able to recount the emotions of that night during the first sonnet in the sequence. The typical sonnet tends to objectify the female body or one’s lover; in this sequence, the sonnets address what happens when an individual acts on these objectifications and assaults Alleyne. Alleyne deviates from the standard subject and speaker of the typical sonnet form to begin the healing process; the process begins
In the poem “An Echo Sonnet, To an Empty Page” poet Robert Pack introduces the narrator who is referred to as the “voice” and his alter ego/subconscious who is referred to as the “echo” in the poem. They exchange questions and answers which reveal the poets prospects and attitudes toward life. The “voice” seems like unsure man, afraid to make a change in his life and live it, because he fears his inevitable mortality. The “echo” which is the man’s subconscious/ alter ego answers the voices questions showing the man a view on life. Beautifully designed, this poem uses the traditional form of a Shakespearean sonnet with the addendum of the “echo” communicating a direct message to the reader. Various literary techniques like symbols, juxtaposition,
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
Nearly four centuries after the invention of the sonnet, Oscar Fay Adams was born. He stepped into his career at the brink of the American civil war, a time when typically cold Victorian era romances were set in stark contrast to the passions of Warhawks. It was in this era when Adams wrote his sonnet: “Indifference”, which explores the emotional turmoil and bitterness a man endures as he struggles to move on from a failed relationship . Adams utilizes the speaker's story in order to dramatize the plight of an individual trying and failing to reconcile holding on to the joy that passionate love brings with the intense pain it bestows in conjunction with this joy . Adams employs various poetic devices in order to present a new view of indifference,
Shakespeare’s Sonnet #23 is addressed to the lovely young man, called WH. The speaker is trying to convey his complex feeling towards his lover. He is tongue-tied in the young man’s company and he is trying to explain this awkwardness and express his complex emotions in this sonnet. It is, the speaker says, due to the hugeness of his love, that makes it too heavy to carry. For the author this sonnet is a silent representation of his inner voice. To show the complexity of the situation, he compares poet’s role as a lover to an actor’s timidity onstage. He asks WH to read these silent lines and explains that love will give him the insight to read between lines. The sonnet consists of 14 lines, which are splitted into octave and a sestet, and has typical for Shakespeare’s sonnets rhyme scheme: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g. He uses first two quatrains to establish a problem and then resolves it in a third quatrain, summarizing solution in the following couplet.
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
In “Sonnet,” Billy Collins satirizes the classical sonnet’s volume to illustrate love in only “.fourteen lines.” (1). Collins’s poem subsists as a “Sonnet,” though there exists many differences in it, countering the customarily conventional structure of a sonnet. Like Collins’s “Sonnet,” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” also faces incongruities with the classic sonnet form as he satirizes the concept of ideal beauty that was largely a convention of writings and art during the Elizabethan era. Although these poems venture through different techniques to appear individually different from the classic sonnet, the theme of love makes the poems analogous.
..., D. E. (2009, November 7). The Sonnet, Subjectivity, and Gender. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from mit.edu: www.mit.edu/~shaslang/WGS/HendersonSSG.pdf
For the reader to grasp the concept that this sonnet is about writer’s block Sidney has to cement the idea that Astrophil is a writer. In this duality, being both the star lover and writer, we begin to see Stella as a metaphor for a writer’s work and audience. Opening the sonnet with a profession of love for Stella, the object of Astrophil’s affection, he is hurt that he does not have her love. In the view of a passionate writer it is as if some critic has said that you are or your work is inadequate and without their approval. In order to gain the critics or Stella’s love he w...
A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one of several set of rhyme-schemes. Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications, but the two characteristic sonnet types are the Italian type (Petrarchan) and the English type (Shakespearean). Shakespeare is still nowadays seen as in idol in English literature. No one can read one of his works and be left indifferent. His way of writing is truly fascinating. His sonnets, which are his most popular work, reflect several strong themes. Several arguments attempt to find the full content of those themes.
“On Being Cautioned against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic,” Charlotte Smith’s sonnet, comments on the poet’s feelings toward this lunatic and the thought process he instigates in her mind. By using different syntax to describe her two characters, Smith draws the attention of the reader to the message in the sonnet instead of the scene on the surface. The structure of the English sonnet also lends to the poem’s power, giving Smith a perfect avenue to deliver her message.
In Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets, Smith uses nature as a vehicle to express her complex emotions and yearning for a renewal of her spirit. Utilizing the immortal characteristics of spring and the tempestuous nature of the ocean, Smith creates a poetic world that is both a comfort and a hindrance to her tortured soul. Even while spring can provide her with temporary solace and the ocean is a friend in her sorrow, both parts of nature constantly remind her of something that she will never be able to accomplish: the renewal of her anguished spirit and complete happiness in life once more. Through three of her sonnets in this collection, Smith connects with the different parts of nature and displays her sensible temperament with her envy over nature’s ability to easily renew its beauty and vitality.
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
The similar rhyme schemes of the two sonnets allow for clear organization of the speaker’s ideas and support these ideas through comparison and connection. Both poems use or essentially use a Shakespearean rhyme scheme to provide rhythm for their sonnets, while adding extra emphasis to the topics presented throughout them. Owen uses the rhyme scheme in a way to stress his description of the enraged scene of the battlefield, and to further the dehumanization of the soldiers at war. The simile used to compare the soldiers to “cattle”, is connected to the fast “rattle” of the rifles, furthering the image of the inhumane way the soldiers we killed (1,3). Owen alters the Shakespearean rhyme scheme in the eleventh line making a switch to create two lines in a row that rhyme, rather than alternating.
This sonnet is an anti-love poem that ironically shows how the fairness of a lady is contingent upon nature's blessings and her external manifestations. The Spenserian style brings unity to this sonnet, in that it's theme and rhyme is interwoven throughout, but the focus of her "fairness" is divided into an octave and a sestet. The first eight lines praise her physical features (hair, cheeks, smile), while the last six lines praise her internal features (words, spirit, heart). This sonnet intentionally hides the speaker's ridicule behind counterfeit love-language, using phrases like: "fair golden hairs" (line 1), and "rose in her red cheeks" (line 3), and "her eyes the fire of love does spark" (line 4). This traditional love language fills pages of literature and song, and has conventionally been used to praise the attributes of a lover; but this sonnet betrays such language by exhibiting a critique rather than commendation. This sonnet appears to praise the beauty of a lady but ironically ridicules her by declaring that her "fairness" is contingent upon nature, physical features, and displaying a gentle spirit, which hides her pride.